In the manufacture of electronic components such as molded semiconductor devices, after the electronic components have been encapsulated and singulated, they have to go through other processes such as testing, inspection and final packing of the electronic components into tubes, trays or in tape and reel format. Some of these processes are preferably performed when the component is in a ‘live bug’ orientation (with the pins of the semiconductor device facing down) while others are preferably performed when the component is in a ‘dead bug’ orientation (with the pins of the semiconductor device facing up). Therefore, when transferring the component from one process to another process, there may be a need for an intermediate process to turn the component to a ‘live bug’ or to a ‘dead bug’ orientation by flipping the component. This is usually not a problem if the processes are carried out in standalone machines, in which case the electronic components will simply be fed into the respective machine in either a ‘live bug’ or a ‘dead bug’ configuration.
However, in a demanding and competitive semiconductor industry, efforts are continually being made to integrate and automate multiple semiconductor backend processes such as final test, inspection and packing within a single system. Such integrated systems typically include a rotary turret based handling system, which is widely used in the semiconductor industry. Rotary turret based handling systems are highly efficient, flexible and are capable of operating at high speeds. The system has numerous individual high-speed turret pick heads and it provides a means for integrating a variety of test, inspection, packing and other processing operations on individual stations around the periphery of the rotary turret platform. The sequence of the stations can be flexibly configured to meet the process requirements of different package types. In some cases, a smaller auxiliary rotary table may be interfaced with a specific mainstream turret station for the transfer of devices to the auxiliary table for testing or some other operations before returning the device to the mainstream turret for further processing. In general, these systems depend on a central, highly accurate, direct-drive indexing actuator to move devices sequentially to various stations on the platform.
It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus or device that may be flexibly configured at any station adjacent to the rotary turret system to flip an electronic component. The function of the device or module would be to receive an electronic component from an upstream process via a turret pick head, move the electronic component to a flipping mechanism, flip the electronic component and then return the electronic component to a pick-up position to be picked by the turret pick head and moved to a downstream station for further processing.